Welcome to my blog where I do random reviews of books and sporadic reviews of movies. Here you'll find out what I'm currently reading and watching. Posts are regularly uploaded on the weekends and sometimes throughout the week. Hope you enjoy the randomness.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Reading Fairy Tales As An Adult: Book Review For "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer

This book was actually finished on March 27, 2013

I gave this novel 5 stars! Cinder was EVERYTHING!

You know how you see certain books in
other people's reviews and just side-eye the book and think, "really?...
how old are you again? Fairy tales are for kids!" Yeah...This was one of
those times where I was totally wrong!

******SPOILER******Cinder's story starts two centuries
into the future after Earth has gone threw a destructive Fourth World
War and the world is broken into new factions known as The Earthen
Nations and their enemy, Luna a.k.a "The Moon."In what we would now
consider to be Asia, Cinder, a cyborg girl lives in New Beijing and
works as a mechanic. Orphaned at a young age and lacking a sufficient
memory of her childhood, she is adopted by the Linh family and taken in
as their third daughter. However, once her stepfather dies after falling
ill with the Leutomitis Plague, Cinder's life becomes a fictional Hell.
Not knowing who she really is, Cinder lives life as an outcast and her
stepmother's personal verbal punching bag. Yet, things start to look up
one day when the Prince of the Eastern Commonwealth (a.k.a Asia) stops
by her mechanic booth and gets her to fix his droid. From there, the fun
begins. Love sparks start flying and secrets become the backdrop to a
kick butt storyline.

Things that I enjoyed about this story:
1.
Marissa Meyer seems to have thoroughly thought out what pieces of the
Cinderella fairytale she would use to create her story. Instead of just
extracting the whole tale, Meyer takes what she needs and leaves the
rest of the tale alone. Her story never feels as if it was written
between the lines of the Grimm brother's fairytale or in between the
scenes of the Disney film adaptation. Meyer's story takes on a life of
its own standing in the forefront in a saturated genre of literature
where most stories have already been re-written to death. Her characters
are well thought out and so is her setting for the story. Which brings
me to point #2...

2. The setting of Meyer's story made me
extremely happy due to me not really being a fan of dystopian novels. I
always feel as if dystopian writers are trying to prove something when
they write about worlds that have gone wrong in their quest for
perfection/one country dominance/etc.. Yet, Meyers makes me feel as if
this world has naturally evolved even though she makes it clear that
their was once a war that took place. Unlike her contemporaries though,
she doesn't force the issue of gore and death or other bad things upon
the reader.

3. The technology in this novel was so cool! I
really felt like the portscreens were really just amped up smart phones
and this made me a little giddy about where technology might go in the
future (LOL I know...how very nerdy of me). Cinder's BFF/Sidekick was
one of my favorite characters. Iko, a humorous droid kept me laughing
continuously whenever she oogled over the Prince or did some other
human-like thing to cheer her buddy.Also, the ball scene where Cinder drives the car through
New Beijing's streets seriously amused me. LMBO It was like a slight PSA
about what'll happen if we don't learn to clean-up our Earth and
recycle and all that Jazz.

4. The ending was also my favorite
part of the novel besides the ball scene when Cinder danced with the
Prince/Emperor. ***SPOILER***The fact that Cinder is ended with her in jail makes me
giddy at what's going to happen next. I always feel like the best
stories end with the character in a hard place.

Overall,
Cinder was an excellent read. That I am glad that I picked up. I am now
a true believer that fairy tales are not just for kids.

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About Me

I'm a first year English graduate student who loves books and movies more than most people would think possible. I tend to splurge on reading material even though I'm living on a budget. Hopefully you'll enjoy my random musings on what I read and watch.
If you would like to follow me on twitter or instagram, my username is adamentdreamer.
Cheers!